The Campbell Vet

When your dog goes off their food or your cat starts hiding under the bed, what do you do?

At The Campbell Vet, a boutique veterinary hospital tucked into the Campbell shops precinct in Canberra, the journey usually starts with one appointment – where diagnosis, imaging, and a plan all sit in the same room.

A local veterinarian in Campbell with big‑hospital expertise

The Campbell Vet is a privately owned and fiercely independent, set up so local pet owners can see a highly qualified veterinarian right in the heart of Campbell. It’s friendly, cosy ambience has a noticeably calming effect on the pets (and, not to mention,  their owners too.) 

Between them, co‑owners Dr Margie Roser and Dr Vickie Saye cover a level of training that usually lives in referral hospitals: Margie is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists, while Vickie holds Memberships in small animal surgery, radiology, and emergency and critical care, along with PennHIP certification. 

A normal day here can include everything from routine vaccinations and puppy preschool through to orthopaedic surgery, lung and abdominal procedures, BOAS surgery, and intensive care cases. The clinic can also provide mechanical ventilation, which is a rarity for a local practice. This is all supported by X‑rays, ultrasound, and Margie’s specialist pathology skills. For pet owners, that often means rapid diagnosis, fewer separate appointments and less shuffling between different locations when a case turns out to be more complex than it looked at first.

Building a local vet clinic in Campbell

“We just wanted to do something that’s small, community based and just the two of us.” 

~ Dr Margie Roser

Before Campbell, Margie and Vickie had already spent years in large veterinary hospitals. Margie started her career in Canberra general practice after meeting Vickie as a student and deciding she wanted to learn from her. She moved into emergency and critical care, then into pathology, completing an intensive traineeship and earning her American specialist credential while working in Queensland.

At one point, Margie was working remotely for a Sydney lab after her family moved back to Canberra, reading slides and sending diagnoses out into the world without seeing the animals they belonged to. She missed talking to people and missed seeing the pets in front of her rather than just on a flickering computer screen, and over time, that feeling turned into a decision to do something different.

Vickie, born and raised in Canberra, had followed a parallel track on the clinical side: early work in general practice, then a surgical focus, then imaging and emergency roles, leading to three separate Memberships and a period as Clinical Director for Emergency at a major referral hospital. Outside work she is a serious orienteer, spending weekends running through bushland with a map in hand – a popular pastime for Canberra locals..

The clinic came out of a conversation between the two of them when Margie realised she wanted to leave corporate pathology, go back to seeing patients, and work alongside Vickie again.

A small clinic that belongs in Campbell

Margie and her family chose to come back to Canberra because it felt like the right place to grow their family, and Vickie has deep roots here from childhood through to the present. They have both seen the inside of large corporate hospitals and chose a different path – something smaller, slower, and more local, and with better continuity of care with the local community.

Run by proud local Canberrans,  the Campbell Vet possesses the expertise of a large hospital, combined the coziness and continuity of care of a boutique clinic. For local pet owners, that combination tends to stick; once people find it, they usually keep coming back.

Looking for a quality vet in Canberra? Look no further than The Campbell Vet – get in touch today.